Judge blasts USF Football/Charlie Strong after latest player arrest

After a second USF player was arrested for a serious felony in the last 45 days, a Hillsborough County Court Judge took it upon herself to put new head coach Charlie Strong and the football program on blast.

Taylor directed her ire at Strong with, “It’s fairly clear that you do not have control of them off the field. And I guess only time will tell whether you have control over them on the field.”

USF released a statement from Strong later Wednesday afternoon that generically read:

“In the short time I have been here our program has been built on character, discipline and family. We have wonderful young men in the USF football program who choose to do the right thing every day. We are dedicated to recruiting young men of high character, and to consistently developing them with structure and frequent education regarding appropriate conduct and behavior, on and off the playing field. While I am shocked and saddened at the recent arrest of a member of our team, I am disappointed that the actions of two players over the last two months have harmed the reputation of our program, of our wonderful university and of my character. We have high expectations of our coaches, staff and student-athletes and we hold accountable those who act contrary to our values.”

It should be further noted that Strong, who was just hired in December, did not recruit either Jackson or Childs and both players are dismissed from the team pending their cases.

Still it’s not a good luck to have these incidents and now nationwide attention from a judge taking USF to task.